From October 7th to 9th, 2022, an international study seminar on "Sustainable and resilient agriculture to enhance workers’ safety and safeguard the environment" took place in Ischia/Italy, organised by FEDER.AGRI. (Federazione Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell'Agricoltura) in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union. Eighty-seven representatives of workers' organisations from Albania, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Croatia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Germany, Italy and France attended the seminar.
"Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of our economy, the issue of work must be studied in every context, especially in this difficult period for our country, but it is also important to discuss the issue at this time because it is the resources of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (Piano Nazione di Ripresa e Resilienza - PNRR) who have to do this. We insist on transforming our economy towards greater social inclusion and security in the world of work", said the opening words and the introduction, chaired by the Secretary General of Feder.Agri., Alfonso Luzzi. In this first session, the President of the National Institute for Social Welfare (Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale - INPS), Pasquale Tridico, was the keynote speaker and spoke at a round table on the issues of occupational safety and social security, in particular forms of income support, minimum wage and active labor market policies.
The Round Table was attended not only by the heads of the national institutes responsible for the control of companies and workers but also by trade union representatives such as Angelo Raffaele Margiotta, General Secretary of Confsal, and Joseph Thouvenel, Vice-President of the French Confederation of Christian Unions.
On the second working day, the experiences of different European countries were compared based on the analysis of the workers' organisations present. The elements that influence the landscape of farms in Italy and Europe are numerous and contribute to changing their total number, structure, size, human resources and productivity. The aspects related to the economic crisis of the last two years, as well as the growing challenges related to environmental sustainability that impose strict and burdensome measures on farmers, as well as the volatility of agricultural product prices and legislative changes in the European area, have created a phenomenon of agricultural regression company created. In the last ten years, for example, they have fallen by more than 30% on average in Italian regions. Small companies were particularly affected.
In the contributions of all participants, safety and health at work and environment/"greening" were the two blocks of topics on which the discussion focused. The participants agreed: COVID-19 has raised public awareness of the importance of safety and health at work. The war in Ukraine has far-reaching consequences for European workers, such as rising commodity prices, economic stagnation and severe environmental risks. Some speakers also questioned the effectiveness of the new CAP 2023-2027 as it could exacerbate the problematic situation facing workers in the agricultural sector in Europe.
The last session of the seminar ended with a round table highlighting the issues of environmental protection and the importance of the activities of companies in the agricultural and food sectors (supply chains) during the pandemic, which ensured the food needs of the citizens. The last few months have shown how unstable the supply chains in this area are, with repeated difficulties due to the war in Ukraine.